[Union Private with Musket and Pistol]

The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2012

Accession Number:

2012.76

Not on view

Almost all portraits of Civil War soldiers, Union and Confederate, show the sitters with one or more weapons: a musket with or without a fixed bayonet, a sword, a pistol or two, a bowie knife. Evidence suggests that given a choice, most soldiers preferred presenting themselves armed with more than one weapon—an opportunity many studios were more than willing to accommodate with a ready supply of props.

Provenance

Medhurst & Company, Kansas City, MO

Exhibition History

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Photography and the American Civil War," April 2, 2013–September 2, 2013.

Gibbes Museum of Art. "Photography and the American Civil War," September 27, 2013–January 5, 2014.

New Orleans Museum of Art. "Photography and the American Civil War," January 31, 2014–May 4, 2014.